Thursday, March 29, 2012

My memory takes me back to early sixties, whenMarchwas the time for annual exams in schools and the results were declared on 1st April.At about the same time , small insects called beetlesappearedall over from nowhereand werestrangelyenough called‘tota’ or ‘totay’, strangelybecause, these bore no resemblance to ' tota’ or parrotas we know it. In between the waiting time , i.e. the time between theconclusion of exams and declaration of results, we used to catcha stray beetleand place it on theback of the hand , where it wouldcreep and crawl.

We would keep repeating- totay totay main fail ki pass - and as it reached the tip of the finger nail and would fly off, we jumped with joy as it meant that we would pass . This was quite contrary to the Hindi idiom – hathon ke totay udna – which would meantotaldestruction and dejection. . About the same time, we saw the advent ofThe Beetles or TheBeatles – the British Rock Band , consisting ofPaulMcartney, JohnLennon , George Harrison , and Ringo Starrthatrocked the music world foralmost a decadetill early seventies.